Dehydrated, Chapped and Covered in Germs

Lucky me. Yesterday I woke up, turned on the news, and experienced the emotional high and low of yesterday's travel news. I was glad obviously, that the latest terror plot had been uncovered before I had to step on a plane. I was also glad that I wasn't trying to get in or out of London yesterday.

However, for all my happy thoughts about the "good guys" finding the "bad guys", I also had a bad feeling about trying to fly home and what kind of delays were in store for me. Turns out, everything was pretty much status quo when I got to the airport. I already knew about the ban on all liquids, so I had to move my eye drops, hand lotion, and Purell (that really sucked) into my checked bag. I also knew I wasn't going to be able to bring a bottle of water on the plane as I normally would. The airport had huge trash cans everywhere for people to dump their things if they couldn't or wouldn't put them in their luggage.

All in all, things weren't too awful in the airport in terms of getting through security. I think it was really a positive reflection on the TSA organization in how quickly they were able to incorporate the new restrictions and get enough staff in place so the delays through security were minimal. The worst delay, which was no surprise to me, was a ground delay before take off. Hard to know for sure if it was related to the events of the day or just a busy air traffic time as usual in the Northeast. Regardless, I was stuck on the ground for another 2 1/2 hours before we were finally able to take off.

One other thing to note here was that I was flying a different airline than normal. Since I wasn't on Southwest, it meant I had a seat assignment, a movie, real food (for purchase, of course) and all the "frills" that Southwest lacks. Honestly? They can keep their damn frills. I had a miserable flight. Starting with my seat assignment (which was on the aisle) next to an elderly woman with the World's Smallest Bladder, to waiting over an hour at baggage claim for my luggage, I realized how much I love the bare-bones, extremely friendly, and chronically ON TIME nature of Southwest. Suddenly the cattle-call doesn't seem like such a hardship. Besides, having to get there so early for the line up means I have more time to drink my coffee before boarding.